BHOPAL: Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who launched several welfare schemes targeted at women during his tenure, was surrounded by his women supporters, who broke down and hugged him as emotions ran high during his visit to his former Lok Sabha constituency Vidisha.
Chouhan, who stepped down as CM last week, was also seen getting emotional and in tears, as women encircled him and raised slogans in his praise while he was on his way to a famous Hanuman temple in Vidisha, around 55 km from here, on Thursday.
Calling him "Bhaiyya" (brother) and "Mama" (maternal uncle), the women and girls hugged him. They said they want him back (as the CM).
The former CM could not hold back his tears and assured them that he was not leaving Madhya Pradesh.
In the November 17 assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered an emphatic win by bagging 163 out of the total 230 seats in Madhya Pradesh. The saffron party then picked Mohan Yadav, a three-time MLA from temple town Ujjain as the new chief minister of the state.
Chouhan, who dominated the politics of Madhya Pradesh for nearly two decades, resigned as the chief minister on December 11, after Yadav was chosen as his successor, bringing curtains down on an era.
Chouhan himself won this year's assembly elections by a record margin of over one lakh votes from Budhni in Sehore district.
Even though there were talks of anti-incumbency, Chouhan, 64, sought to turn the tables in BJP's favour in Madhya Pradesh by launching a game-changer scheme like 'Ladli Behna'. But his party had refrained from projecting him as the CM face in the assembly elections.
Chouhan had launched the Ladli Behna scheme in March this year, which provides eligible women Rs 1,250 monthly financial assistance, and later promised to gradually hike the amount to Rs 3,000. Of the 2.72 crore women voters in the state, the scheme covered 1.31 crore women.
On March 17 last year, Chouhan had achieved the distinction of being the longest-serving BJP chief minister. He broke the record which had been held by former Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh.
During his nearly 18-year-long tenure as CM, barring 15 months of Congress rule (December 2018-March 2020), Chouhan transformed himself from being a shy, simple and vulnerable politician to an astute leader with a wide mass appeal.
Chouhan pioneered welfare schemes in Madhya Pradesh, which was once tagged among the 'BIMARU' (laggard) states. His populist programmes like 'Ladli Laxmi Yojna', 'Mukhya Mantri Kanyadan Yojna', 'Mukhya Mantri Teerth Darshan Yojana', bicycle scheme for school children, among others, were emulated by some other states.